In a surprise move on Friday, Apple, Inc. announced that it was renaming its newly released "iPhone" product as the "iTouch Mobile" after a lawsuit was filed by Cisco Systems, Inc. earlier in the week. The announcement came only days after Apple announced its revolutionary iPhone product -- a sleek, $499 gizmo combining the popular iPod product and a mobile phone -- to much fanfare at the Macworld Expo.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Cisco asked a judge to forbid Apple from using the name "iPhone," a Cisco trademark since 2000. The case hinged in part on whether Apple's phone could confuse shoppers looking to buy Cisco's iPhones. Attorneys specializing in intellectual property said Thursday that Cisco would likely have won, if the case had gone to court.

Apple didn't take that risk, though, and renamed the product to the "iTouch Mobile". This new moniker refers to the touch-screen capabilities of the new gadget.

The initial name of the new phone came as a surprise to many in the online community, who knew about Cisco's trademark and did not expect the device to be named the iPhone, although that was the primary term used to refer to it in rumors before the event. It is unclear why executives couldn't settle their naming skirmish. Grace Han Stanton, a trademark expert and partner in the Seattle office of Perkins Coie LLP, said Apple executives were likely anticipating the lawsuit long before they launched the iPhone Tuesday. "Why choose iPhone when there's a known conflict? Maybe they wanted the media frenzy," Stanton said. "This added a lot of fuel to the iPhone fire."

The iTouch Mobile is scheduled to be released in June 2007 starting at a price of $499.